Fifteen athletes and three coaches from Terrace and Kitimat travelled to Kamloops as part of the Region 7 [Burns Lake to Prince Rupert] team to participate in the Special Olympics Summer Games, from July 6 to 9.
Swimmer Colton Cale from Kitimat won gold medals in the 50 metre freestyle, 50 metre backstroke and 25 metre breaststroke events. Logan Eastman, also from Kitimat won gold in the 50 metre backstroke and Terrace’s Jess Hansen won gold in the 25 metre backstroke and silver in the 50 metre freestyle.
Terrace sent bowlers Trevor Oliver, Laudalina Oliver and Johnny Norton to join Smithers bowling teams. Each of them had excellent games: unfortunately each of their teams were short one bowler resulting in lower aggregate scores and they were unable to secure medals.
The Terrace/Kitimat Spirit Bears soccer team defeated Quesnel 8 – 1, Nelson 8 -1 and Chilliwack 6 -5 and lost to Delta 6 – 2 to claim the silver medal in the “C” Division.
The team consisted of Terrace athletes Clinton Ho, Caleb Wacholtz, Stanley Rinaldi, Scott Savard, Hannah Dale and Laura Dale, and Kitimat players Nathan Readman, Theo Jack and Zack Robinson. They were coached by Chris Dale and Kristie Ebeling of Terrace and Tonie Readman from Kitimat.
The whole 42 person contingent travelled together on a chartered plane flown by Coast Mountain Airlines to join around 1600 athletes in the largest Special Olympics Provincial Games ever held in B.C.
— Story submitted by Chris Dale, program coordinator of Terrace’s B.C. Special Olympics
